"I want to tell you what happen between me and Anica" zhul breathed. angel didn't know what to say or how to react. She knew that anica had hurt him and she knew he probably didn't like talking about.
"Are you sure?" angel asked. zhul nodded then realized she couldn't see him thru the phone. "Yeah"
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A young zhul walked along the streets of Cagayan. September was almost over and fall was in full swing. zhul was on his way to school. He was a freshman at Lecio High School. He had on his usual indifferent face and his brown lunch bag that his mother had prepared for him. He was minding his own business when he heard a cry for help.
zhul looked up to see a guy around his height grabbing a young girl's arm. She seemed frightened and that all zhul need to see to step in.
"Please let me go" She cried.
"C'mon, we could head under the bleachers" he said. Then he was pulled away like a rag doll. He fell to the floor and looked around to try to understand what happen, then he saw a tall person with bright orange hair.
"Who are you?"
"That doesn't matter; all you need to know is that you should leave the young lady alone." He said. The girl looked up at him intently. She was shocked by his kindness and heroism.
"What the hell are you gonna do?" He said, he was about to lunge after zhul, when he was pulled back by a great force. He looked around once again and noticed his feet weren't on the ground. He looked and noticed a large dark muscular man was holding him.
"What's going on here" He asked. The kid looked at this man scared.
"It's okay marison, you can put him down, he was just about to get lost" zhul said looking straight into the eye of the poor teenage boy. He nodded quickly. zhul dropped him and he ran for his life.
"Thanks zhul, but I didn't need help."
"I know but you have already got into four fights since school started."zhul insisted. zhul shrugged. "I don't care about a fifth one" He said. marison noticed the young girl standing next to zhul.
"Who's the girl?" marison asked.zhul looked at the girl. She was a pale short girl. She had dark brown eyes and short brown hair. He noticed how big and beautiful her eyes were.
"Don't know, by the looks of her uniform, she goes to our high school, but I never seen her before" He said.
"My name is Anica" the timid girl finally spoke up. "Anica Layson, I just moved to Cagayan, It's my first day at your school"
"Nice to meet you, I'm zhul, this is my friend marison" zhul said. anica smiled and bowed. "It's a pleasure meeting you both and thank you so much for helping me"
zhul didn't understand why he had an instant attraction for this girl but he did. "If you want we can walk you to school; are you a freshman?"
"Yes I am"
"Cool, then you can eat with me and my friends" zhul offered. marison was surprised by his friend's attitude toward her. He could tell zhul had a little crush.
"That sounds great, Mr. Protector" She smiled.
"Protector?"
"Your name means 'one who protects' right?" anica said. zhul's mouth dropped. He didn't think anyone knew what his name truly meant.
"Yeah" was all he could say.
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"She sounds amazing" angel said with a bit of resentment.
"She amazed me from the day I met her" zhul said. "She had something about her, she was shy but I don't know why I was so drawn to her."
"She sounds perfect" Angel mumbled. She didn't want to sound jealous because she knew she shouldn't be. It's not like her and Zhul were together.
"Well for the first couple of weeks she ate with me, Marison, Darwin, Archie and Brix but I thought she might need some female friends."
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"Hey Rhesalyn and Darlene" Darwin said as he waved down both girls. "Hey guys" Darlene said happily. Everyone said hello. Rhesalyn and Darlene noticed there was a female in the boy's circle. zhul's group of friends consisted of Darwin, Archie, Marison and Brix, even though zhul and brix argue every time
"You're Anica from class right?" Rhesalyn asked. She nodded and smiled shyly. Darlene noticed the girl was sitting close to zhul and began to feel a bit of envy. Who was this girl who was so close to zhul? But darlene refused to be mean or rude. "Hello, my name is darlene, this is rhesalyn" She smiled warmly.
"Nice to meet you both" She said.
"Did you guys wanna eat lunch with us?" Brix asked. darlene smiled and nodded. darlene took a seat next to zhul and rhesalyn sat next to darlene.
"So how do you like Cagayan" darlene asked anica
"Its really nice, zhul has been showing me around, so I'm getting used to it" She said. Everyone eyed zhul suspiciously; they knew he must have had a crush.
"So you and zhul have been hanging out a lot huh?"darwin said winking at zhul.
"Shut up" zhul said trying to sound indifferent. anica smiled at him and continued with her food. darlene became sad. She knew she shouldn't be jealous, it wasn't like something was going on, but she had a huge crush on zhul, and rhesalyn knew it.
"Well, maybe you could hang out with us sometime" rhesalyn suggested. darlene perked up hearing this.
"Yes, that would be fun, we could go shopping, or have sleepovers" darlene added
"Sleepovers!" darwin yelled. rhesalyn hit him on his head for his obvious perverted thoughts.
"Sound great" anica said smiling happily.
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"She quickly became a part of the group." zhul said
"So when did you two start catching feelings for each other?" Angel asked. She hated knowing but she also hated not knowing. She kept telling herself it is just curiosity.
"Well we spent a lot of time together, and I had been falling for her since the day I met her. When winter break came around, I decided I wanted my family to meet her before I confessed my feelings to her.
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"Everyone, this is Anica" zhul said as he introduced his friend to his family on Christmas Eve.
"This is my father" zhul mumbled to anica. "It's so nice to meet you, pretty lady" He said. "Are you here, to finally turn my son into man-OOFF" zhul kicked his father in the face before he could finish.
"This is my mother" zhul said happily. "It's a pleasure to meet you, anica, I have heard quite a lot" Marisa said, causing both zhul and anica to blush. "It's an honor to meet zhul's parents." anica said.
"These are my sisters lorry and kimberly".kimberly smiled. "It's great to finally meet you anica" kimberly said. "So are you dating my brother?" Lorry asked bluntly. Anica blushed madly at that question.
"Lorry, you suck" zhul said. Lorry smirked and walked away.
After having a crazy family dinner, zhul and anica went outside where it began to snow.
"I'm so happy I got to meet your family, they are so amazing"
"I guess, except, lorry is a little too mean to be a girl, and my dad is completely insane" zhul said. Anica giggled at him and looked into the sky.
"I really don't like the snow"
"Why?" zhul asked.
"Bad things have happen to me in the snow" she confessed.
"Like what?" zhul asked.
"I don't wanna talk about it" She said still not looking at him. zhul felt a bit disappointed that she didn't open up. He gazed at her and decided he would finally do it.
"Anica?" He said. Anica looked to him and saw the nervous look on his face.
"What is it?" She asked.
"I like you, and not as a friend, I mean more than that. I don't expect you to feel the same but-"zhul was interrupted when she pulled him down to her level and kissed him passionately on the lips. He was shocked but quickly accepted and kissed her back.
"I like you too" She said after pulling away. He smiled and leaned down to kiss her again.
___________________________________________
"I like you?" Angel repeated to herself.
"Yeah, what's wrong" Zhul asked.
"I don't know, its sounds so preschool" Angel teased
"Look, she was my first girlfriend, I wasn't exactly experienced with dating" zhul replied. angel laughed over the phone and zhul mumbled a few curses.
"As I was saying, We dated for a couple of weeks and became official by the time we got back to school"
"How did everyone react?"
"They all expected it, something about me being obvious" zhul said. "So we became the cute freshman couple. I hated it but that's what we were. We never argued and we were always together."
Angel was really jealous of this Anica girl, she sounded perfect. She knew what she wanted to know, and decided she would just ask.
"Did you guys ever have sex" Angel asked plainly. Zhul choked when he heard the question. Angel didn't seem phased by his reaction.
"Kind of personal, don't you think?" he asked.
"The whole matter is personal, so did you guys have sex or not?" Angel asked forcefully.
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Summer had finally came, they were no longer freshman, when fall came they would be sophomores in high school. Anica and zhul were spending their day at the park when zhul felts some rain drops
"Shit its raining" zhul said. He grabbed anica's hand as they ran in the rain. anica smiled as she held her boyfriend's hand. Zhul and Anica ran until they finally made it to Anica's home.
"Well, I better get going before it rains harder" He said. He was already soaking wet. "Why don't you come in?" Anica suggested. Zhul looked at her questionably. Her father was out on business for a few days, so that meant they had the house to themselves.
"Sure" zhul said. anica and zhul walked into the house. anica lead zhul up to her room.
"I'm gonna go take a shower" anica said. She began to undress fight in front of zhul. "W-What are you doing-g" He asked nervously. "I'm about to take a shower." She said matter-of-factly. She saw how nervous he looked. She walked up to him and kissed him on his lips. "You're my boyfriend; I don't care if you see me naked."
zhul nodded then kissed her back. She kissed him back with more passion pressing her upper body on him, whilst wearing only a bra. zhul proceed to lay her on the bed and kiss her back harder, showing his dominance. His lips soon moved to her neck and her hands moved to his belt buckle. He stopped and looked at her.
"Are you sure about this anica?" zhul asked looking deeply into her eyes.
"I love you zhul, I'm sure" She said smiling at him.
"I love you too" He said before kissing her again.
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"So she was your first" Angel said.
"Yup, things were going so good for us, She wasn't this shy girl I had first met, she became this happy open, and assertive girl" zhul stated
"So what happened?"
"Sophomore year happened,"
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"What do you wanna do tonite?" zhul asked anica as they prepare to leave class.
"I'm hanging out with an old friend from school" anica replied. "We haven't seen each other in about a year."
"That's cool, I'll call you later."
"Okay" anica said. She kissed him on the cheek and ran out of the classroom excited.
"I love you" he said to himself. He had a bad feeling in his stomach.
___________________________________________
"Who was this friend?" Angel asked.
"The man who took her away from me." zhul replied. "anica and I started spending less time together. We used to talk on the phone everyday but soon it became twice a week. She would always have to hang out with her friend. I didn't want to seem like the jealous type so I didn't say anything. She began acting weird though. She wouldn't let me touch her or kiss her. I began to worry.
___________________________________________
"Hey zhul, wanna go to the movies with us?" Archie asked zhul on the phone. zhul had spent most of his nights at home. If he wasn't with anica, he didn't want to go out.
"I don't know" zhul replied.
"Oh come on, We haven't hung out like this in months"
"Who is going?"
"Me, darwin, marison, brix, rhesalyn and darlene are going"
"I guess so"
"Great movie starts at 8:30" archie said. zhul sighed and decided he would hang out with his friends.
Of course zhul didn't expect anica to be there. Too bad she was there with a young man, who looked like he was around their age. He had short silver hair with long bangs and light lavender eyes. He had very pale skin and was little taller than zhul. zhul stayed calm. This must be the friend that she was hanging out with.
He didn't want to assume anything, but all his trust when out the window, when the guy leaned down to kiss anica and she accepted. All of zhul's friends gasped at what they saw, while zhul felt his heart shatter into a million pieces.
"ANICA!" rhesalyn yelled. anica quickly pulled herself away to see all her school friends and her boyfriend zhul. anica's eyes meet zhul's. She didn't know what to say to him.
"Z-zhul" anica called out to him, as soon as she said his name zhul turned around and began to run.
"ZHUL!" She yelled again.
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"She cheated?" angel said. She couldn't believe it.
"Yeah, she was seeing him behind my back the whole time."
"Who was he?"
"Some guy from her old school." zhul said bitterly.
"Did she ever explain herself?"zhul asked angry.
"No, I wouldn't give her the chance. And to think I caught her cheating a week before our one year anniversary."
Angel stayed quiet. She could tell talking about it still hurt Zhul. She could hear is breathing, he was trying to stay calm.
"What about Darlene?" Angel finally asked.
"What about her?"
"She told me that you two used to date." zhul had almost forgotten. "A few months after I caught anica cheating, rhesalyn told me that darlene liked me. I didn't know this though. darlene had been there through my breakup and grieving but I had no idea she liked me. To be honest I decided to date her to pay her back for her kindness, but I wasn't over anica. darlene couldn't fix my broken heart."
"She could only be your umbrella" angel whispered to herself. angel had remembered what she and zhul talked about at the tournament.
"Darlene is a nice girl, but I can't give her the love she truly deserves" zhul said sadly.
"So, do you still love anica?" Angel asked afraid of his answer.
"No, that day at the shop was the first time I had talked to her, I don't love her, I hate her."
"You're lying" angel said firmly.
"I do hate her!"
"No you don't and you're not over it!" Angel yelled. "If you were, then you wouldn't be so angry or say that you hate her. If you were truly over anica, you would forgive her or at least listen to her"
"I can't angel, why can't you understand, she hurt me, and she betrayed me" zhul said almost at the verge of tears.
"Stop being such a girl about your emotions. She messed up big time, I know, but zhul if you hold this grudge you will never be able to love anyone else"
"I could forget her" zhul said seriously. "For some reason when I'm with you angel, I forget she even existed." zhul confessed.
angel could feel herself blushing. She didn't even know how to react to that. What did that mean? Did he have feelings for her? Why was her heart racing? Did she have feelings for him too?
"zhul, you need to talk to her" angel managed to say.
"Angel Perez disconnect the phone now" zhul heard franz say when he entered the room. "It is 1am. You can talk to this person at a more decent hour."
"Yes Brother" angel said. angel sighed. "I'll talk to you tomorrow zhul"
"See you in the morning" He said. "Bye" They said in unison.